ArticleiScience2021
Bacteriophage uptake by mammalian cell layers represents a potential sink that may impact phage therapy.
Article in iScience, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 99 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
99 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 146 citations in OpenAlex.
- A consensus-based guideline for personalized bacteriophage therapy.Nature medicine · 2026Guideline
- Mechanistic insights into phage dynamics to overcome intracellular bacterial reservoirs in urinary tract infections.Npj viruses · 2026Article
- Development andMicrobiology spectrum · 2026Article
- Strong mucosal adhesion enhances the anti-infective effectiveness of T4-like phages.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2026Article
- Prevalent gut phages encode modular adhesins mediating epithelial binding and endoplasmic reticulum trafficking.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Isolation and characterisation of a novel Stenotrophomonas maltophilia phage vB_SmaS_BCU-1 with evaluation of mammalian cell safety.European journal of clinical microbiology & infectious diseases : official publication of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology · 2026Article
- Bacteriophage-mediated reduction of uropathogenicInfection and immunity · 2026Article
- Rage against the mean: a perspective on measuring fitness of individual phage particles.Npj viruses · 2026Review
- Review
- Virus-like particles based on plant viruses and bacteriophages: emerging strategies for the delivery of nucleic acid therapeutics.Chemical science · 2026Review
- The epidermal ecotone: a proposed model system for marine viral ecology at the animal-environmental interface.NPJ biofilms and microbiomes · 2026Review
- Bacteriophages JEP7 and PBC2, which target foodborne pathogens, elicit cytokine responses in mammalian cells.Food science and biotechnology · 2026Article
- Addition of lactoferrin increases efficacy of three Kayviruses and limits the inflammatory response in pulmonary epithelial cells.Applied microbiology and biotechnology · 2026Article
- Whole-body distribution of threeAntimicrobial agents and chemotherapy · 2026Article
- Searching for the perfect match: can non-antibiotic antimicrobials improve bacteriophage performance?Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2026Review
- Phage therapy againstFrontiers in microbiology · 2026Review
- Lowered Abundance of Gut Bacteriophage Species Is Associated With Human Cancer Cachexia.Journal of cachexia, sarcopenia and muscle · 2026Article
- Filamentous bacteriophages: impact on prokaryotic virulence, eukaryotic immunity, and implications for phage therapy.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Review
- When bacteriophages encounter macrophages during their journey through the human body.Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2026Review
- Analysis of Pro- and Anti-Inflammatory Gene Response Patterns in Patients Receiving Phage Therapy.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Observational
39 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
14 authors at 5 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
It is increasingly apparent that bacteriophages, viruses that infect bacteria and more commonly referred to as simply phages, have tropisms outside their bacterial hosts. Using live tissue culture cell imaging, we demonstrate that cell type, phage size, and morphology play a major role in phage internalization. Uptake was validated under physiological conditions using a microfluidic device. Phages adhered to mammalian tissues, with adherent phages being subsequently internalized by macropinocytosis, with functional phages accumulating intracellularly. We incorporated these results into a pharmacokinetic model demonstrating the potential impact of phage accumulation by cell layers, which represents a potential sink for circulating phages in the body. During phage therapy, high doses of phages are directly administered to a patient in order to treat a bacterial infection, thereby facilitating broad interactions between phages and mammalian cells. Understanding these interactions will have important implications on innate immune responses, phage pharmacokinetics, and the efficacy of phage therapy.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.